December 2012 Link Roundup

Happy Holidays! Here's a roundup of some choice articles from December:

Review of Forge (MMORPG): http://bit.ly/SNdnTP

Game On Extra about Defiance with Trion Worlds' Senior VP of Development Nick Beliaeff (MMORPG): http://bit.ly/SUdUja

Preview of Defiance (MMORPG): http://bit.ly/TdHmk1

Noob's impressions of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion (RTSGuru): http://bit.ly/TYpxUD

Game On podcast with Carbine Studios' Chad Moore about WildStar (MMORPG): http://bit.ly/UmsbVB 

Star Wars: The Old Republic Review

Reviewing Star Wars: The Old Republic is a curious endeavor.  On the one hand, the writer is tasked with presenting the game to a wide audience with a diversity of interests and game experiences.  On the other, s/he has to assume a particular niche within video game genres at large that attract gamers who know what they're looking for, and what to expect from a particular game.  With SWTOR, I'm almost tempted to write two separate reviews for these admittedly overlapping audiences, as your experience with Bioware's new MMORPG will likely depend on your expectations from a Star Wars MMO.

Right off the bat, Bioware's presentation of the Star Wars universe in an MMO package is spectacular.  From the action-packed intro videos (previously released as trailers), to the classic text crawl set to the blaring of horns after you create your character, and the detailed, immersive worlds dripping with lore, everything about SWTOR looks and feels true to the Star Wars universe.  The game looks very good and has a Clone Wars-influenced art style that works well in its stylization, without being overly cartoony or taxing on most mid-level gaming rigs.  It helps that all of the visuals, music, sounds and even UI fit in very well with what you'd expect from a Star Wars game, and it's clear that the developers have worked very hard to hit all of the right notes here.

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The much-talked about class stories and cinematic, fully-voiced dialogue sequences also go a long way towards making you feel that you really are a sarcastic, double-blaster toting bounty hunter who has come to Tatooine for two reasons, nevermind that no one chews bubble gum in Star Wars.  Bioware has likened SWTOR to "Knights of the Old Republic 3-10," and I can see where they're coming from, with the amount of story content packed in for each of the eight classes.  There are fully-scripted story quests that lead you through the different planets in SWTOR's universe, with a Mass Effect-style dialogue system that allows you to make different decisions based on how you'd like to play your character.  Your involvement in your class' story is further nuanced by the gaining of "Light" and "Dark Side" points through your decisions, so if you want to play a Jedi Knight with a dark streak or an Imperial Agent with a soft side, there are some options to explore.

Some of the class stories seem to be more engaging than others, which is a theme with most of SWTOR's content.  I've been mostly playing a Jedi Consular/Shadow on the Republic Side and an Imperial Agent/Operative on Empire, and have been finding the cloak-and-dagger Agent story to be much more intriguing than the heroic Consular path.  That's not to say that any of the class stories are boring; in fact, any one of them would be more lore-driven story than you'll find in most MMOs.  Still, the generally immersive class stories greatly overshadow a large percentage of the other kill-fetch-collect quests that you'll find in SWTOR, which will quickly remind you that you're playing an MMORPG.  The prodigious amount of very good voice acting helps a lot to couch some of your tasks in backstory or situational intrigue, but even that can get tiring after a while when you know an NPC is just going to ask you to collect 10 more lightsaber parts.

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Perhaps this imbalance is the first sticking point between gamers who are looking for something new out of MMOs, and those who are happy to revisit classic tropes in a Star Wars skin.  If you've been excited by what Bioware has been hyping in terms of the rich class stories and fully-voiced dialogue system, you should know that this content only comprises about twenty percent of everything you'll be doing in SWTOR.  Everything else is pretty typical, if mostly polished, MMO fare, which is totally fine if you're a fan of the genre and looking for more of the same.

Bioware hasn't reinvented the wheel with SWTOR, but that doesn't make the game's systems any less fun to play around with and experience.  Combat is based on filling up your hotbars with skills and finding a good skill rotation for your class, killing mobs, rinsing and repeating.  That's not to say that it's boring; in fact, SWTOR's combat is some of the crunchiest and most fun MMO combat I've experienced, and Bioware's deliberate omission of an autoattack feature ensures that you pay at least a little attention while engaged.  The game's combat also has a larger scope than in most other MMORPGs, as you'll usually be fighting 3-4 mobs instead of one loser NPC, and the hum of lightsabers and sneezing of blasters do a lot to make you feel like a badass.  Plus, each of the eight classes has two "Advanced" subclasses that further differentiate your combat options and recommended playstyle, which are in turn customizable by talent trees.  For a system that's very familiar, SWTOR does pack enough in to make combat engaging.

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SWTOR does boast a few additions that augment the game experience, particularly with companions and the game's social experience.  Like KOTOR and other Bioware games, your adventure links you up with a diverse cast of characters who want nothing more than to collect 5 swamp rat tails with you.  You can have one companion adventure with you at a time, who fights alongside you and can really make a difference in a fight, allowing you to customize their armor and weapons and micromanage their skills.  They can also be sent out on "Crew Skill" missions, which comprise the crafting system in SWTOR, making it easy to keep questing while you order your minions to gather materials or build weapons for you.  Additionally, your companions participate in conversations with you, reacting to the choices that you make and causing you to gain or lose influence with them based on your decisions (you can give them gifts to sweet-talk yourself back into their good graces too).

Your companions aren't the only one who will insinuate themselves into your conversations, as your PC party members will also get a chance to participate in dialogue sequences, if you choose to group with other people.  In any conversation that requires a decision, everyone in the group - meaning all PCs, not their companions - can select their preferred dialogue option, and a dice roll behind the scenes decides what choice is actually made.  You'll still get the light or dark side points for the choice that you made, but the quest line will follow the decision the party made as a whole.  If you don't want people mucking with your class storylines, not to worry, as other people are excluded from your story quests by default, and you can change this option in the game menu.  However, participating in any dialogue choices with other players is actually really fun, and earns you "Social Points" that increase your rating with certain vendors and allow you to purchase some otherwise restricted gear.

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It should be mentioned that the social scene in general occupies a kind of weird space in SWTOR, as having other people in your KOTOR MMO doesn't really add much outside of the areas that actually require a full group (or at least a couple of people) to complete the content.  To be honest, if you find yourself engaged with some of the story-related quests, you might also find that bumping into a PC smuggler named "Haansolloo" to be pretty jarring.  SWTOR does encourage group content in "Heroic" areas that require 2-4 players and in the game's instanced "Flashpoints" and "Operations," which are dungeons and raids, respectively.  These forms of content range from exciting to mediocre, and are overall a good way to engage with other players in Bioware's massively multiplayer world, but I honestly wouldn't mind if the single player content was likewise instanced.

The other area in which SWTOR offers player interaction is of course in PvP, which is fun enough but largely under-developed and imbalanced at this point.  There are three "warzones," which are your basic battlegrounds, although the popular Huttball is a fun take on cross-faction PvP in a sports arena-type setting.  The open-world PvP planet of Ilum is well-known for being unbalanced and is constantly being tweaked by the developers, and it seems to be taking some time for them to find a happy medium with faction balance and PvP incentives.  Overall, the player-vs-player content in SWTOR is fun, and a nice supplement to your leveling process as you get XP as well as Valor for doing it, and can queue for warzones from anywhere in the world.  PvP does generally feel a little rough around the edges, and it would be nice to see a bit more balancing and more modes, but Bioware seems to be aware of the issues and addressing them.

Space combat and guild functionality, however, largely feel like unfinished products.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE having my own spaceship - who doesn't want their own spaceship?! - and the on-rails space combat is an amusing diversion from SWTOR's MMO trappings at first.  Yet, after having played more similar space missions and getting past the vaguely Rebel Assault allure of the gameplay, space combat feels more and more like an option that was tacked on because it had to be in the game at launch.  It's not that space combat is bad or boring - it's mostly inoffensive at best and kind of just there at worst.  I know Bioware has had a lot to think about in managing the numerous different game systems in SWTOR, and they've said that they will be adding to space combat in the future, but it's clear that this portion of the game has gotten short shrift to make launch.

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Similarly, there's very little in the way of guild functionality, although Bioware has also been vocal about their commitment to patching in updates to support guilds in SWTOR.  They've announced that they're working on features like guild banks and "Guild Capital Ships" and have reached out to guild leaders and members to participate in the upcoming "Guild Summit" in Austin.  It's again clear that the developers were very focused on the areas that they wanted to shine at release, and are planning to supplement the under-developed content in post-launch patches and initiatives.  This approach means that the good stuff is pretty good and polished, while the less-developed stuff is glaringly lacking.

All of this being said, the bottom line is that SWTOR is a good game for some and a great game for others.  If you're tired of the MMO formula or have never really liked it in the first place, you might still enjoy what Bioware is offering here in the story-based content, companions, and fun combat, but will easily see through the traditional side quests, under-developed space combat, and general grind.  Conversely, if you like playing MMOs in general and have some experience with the time that it takes for most online games to gain their footing post-launch, you can probably overlook SWTOR's issues and enjoy it for what it is, especially if you like Star Wars.

SWTOR is a lot of fun, and if you have any interest in MMORPGs and/or Star Wars, you should give it a shot.  It's doesn't attempt to push the genre forward like Guild Wars 2, The Secret World, or TERA seem to be doing, except in the way of storytelling, but it delivers on most of its promises while missing some things that will likely be addressed in future updates.  Whether you're willing to pay full price and a $15 subscription is another question, but overall, Bioware delivers on a mostly fun experience that fans of the MMO and Star Wars genres alike can appreciate.

Dragon Age II Review

Bioware has a knack for creating game worlds and stories that have the potential to grab your interest for tens to hundreds of hours. Following in the tradition of franchises like Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic - and more recently, Mass Effect and Dragon Age - Dragon Age II continues the company's outstanding record of rich storytelling and engaging gameplay, albeit with some issues that hold it back from being a perfect title.

Rather than being a chronological sequel, Dragon Age II starts out within the same timeline as Dragon Age, and carries on past the original game's conclusion. You play as Hawke, a survivor from the Battle for Ostagar in the first game, who is fleeing from Ferelden with his family to the nearby city of Kirkwall in the Free Marches. The story is told within a framed narrative, meaning that one of your companions, the wry dwarf thief Varric, is relating the events of the game to a third party as you play through them, providing a sort of larger context for what you're doing.

DragonAge.Bioware.com

The choice for a framed narrative is an interesting one and different from the previous game, much like many other decisions Bioware has made for Dragon Age II. The story that is being told is way smaller in scope than that it Dragon Age, taking place mostly within and around Kirkwall, rather than across an entire country at war with every monster ever. It's still very engaging and epic, but very different. Similarly, the art style that the game's developers have gone with is much more stylized - and dare we say, better - than the first game, looking much more clean, colorful and polished. The Bioware team seems to have been super self-reflective about the critiques of the first game's art; one of the NPC conversations we've heard in-game has a Ferelden refugee telling another something like, "I'm so glad we've left Ferelden for Kirkwall - it was so drab and brown!"

The RPG and combat elements have likewise been changed and feel much more streamlined and action-packed. Rather than having a number of races and classes to choose from, you can either be a female or male human warrior, rogue, or mage, with several unlockable class sub-specializations. The same radial menu and quick slot action bar exist with some refinements to make them better organized, and the level up system has been simplified to basic progression trees that help you to better plan out your character's projected badassery. Probably the coolest addition to the combat system itself are the new skills and the way that they're presented; I swear I geekgasmed when my rogue Hawke did a backstab for the first time, teleporting through a haze of black smoke to appear behind some noob monster to lay the smack down. More like darksPWN, amirite?!@!

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It should also be mentioned that if you're playing on PC, Dragon Age II no longer supports a full isometric view, only pulling back to a mostly over-the-shoulder viewpoint. This change fully supports the game's vision as an Action RPG, rather than a traditional RPG with strategic elements like in Baldur's Gate or even the first Dragon Age.

The story is fantastically told, and with some few exceptions, is one of the most engaging parts of the game. True to Bioware's canon, Dragon Age II's story is complex and gratifying, getting you involved in the different aspects of the political intrigue within Kirkwall and motivating you to help each of your (mostly) likeable companions with their own quests to further your relationships and potential romances with them. Your party members' personalities are all very three dimensional and easy to relate to, and continually chatter and bicker with each other when you're gallivanting about Kirkwall, which can be hilarious and provides some great backstory about the world and your companions themselves (some of whom will be familiar from the first game). In addition, Bioware has implemented the Mass Effect-style dialogue wheel to streamline the various conversation options when you're talking to people, and it works very well to help you figure out what Hawke (who's not mute like your character in the original game) is going to say. Pro-tip: pick the neutral "funny" dialogue option whenever possible if you appreciate sarcasm!

DragonAge.Bioware.com

If most of this sounds like a great improvement over the first game and a streamlining of its features to be more fun and action-oriented, that's because it it is, which is both a blessing and a caveat. Having played through the entire 40+ hour campaign of the first game and loving it, we can definitely say Dragon Age II is even more fun, but sometimes feels like an upgrade and reimagining of the style of Dragon Age rather than a true sequel. This is especially apparent in certain combat situations and quest scenarios, where you'll plan out some strategies for your character and party members, completely waste the baddies in a room, and a bunch more of them will drop from the ceiling or spawn around you. Equally frustrating is how many of the side quests will take you to the same locations or what look to be similar caves to clear out, which can be very repetitive. Why not figure out a better solution to mob spawning, instead of sending wave after wave of enemies in inconsistent ways? Or create a better variety of locales to explore?

We suspect that although Dragon Age II was most likely in development before the release of Dragon Age, the fact that this game came out only a year after the original game may have a lot to do with why it feels somewhat unpolished. We can understand this, but it largely contributes to Dragon Age II not feeling like a complete sequel and preventing it from being a 10/10 game.

DragonAge.Bioware.com

Dragon Age II also has a considerable difficulty spike towards the end of the game, which may require you to try different strategies with your party to succeed. This isn't annoying by itself, and it encourages you to experiment with different characters and skills. Still, the game's long load times can make repeating battles frustrating, especially if you don't have a recent save (hint: save all the time).

Still, if you're a fan of the Dragon Age mythos and are looking for more of the engaging story and companion relationships that only Bioware knows how to create, you'll likely love Dragon Age II. The action-y combat is really satisfying, and the stylized art style is much easier on the eyes than the first game. Additionally, if you haven't played the original, it's worth playing through to understand the full backstory of the world. After you do, you can import your Dragon Age save to influence certain overarching story elements of the second game, which is pretty awesome, although not as particular as Mass Effect's import system. Despite its issues, Dragon Age II is a worthy second entry to the franchise, and we're looking forward to what Bioware does next with the series.

Rift Review: Hole in One

Rift is like a new set of golf clubs that fits your hands perfectly.

In the video gaming industry, there's a pretty hotly-debated discussion of iteration versus innovation. While companies like Activision are happy to deliver a slightly modified upgrade to the Call of Duty franchise every year, a lot of gamers are pretty vocal that they're looking for developers to create something new, rather than iterating on the same formula. This is especially true in the micro-community of MMO's, where a multitude of titles continue to follow the tried-and-true formulas established by games like Everquest and World of Warcraft.

Sometimes, iteration can be pretty awesome, especially when mixed appropriately with innovation. It's easy to get on the message boards and either decry formulaic MMORPG's or naysay every new addition to your favorite game, but seriously, TLDR. Rift builds upon the traditional MMO formula in such a polished, complete package, while adding enough new, crunchy stuff that it sets a new standard in MMO development, delivery and gameplay.

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The story of Rift revolves around the planet Telara, which is under assault by a pantheon of dragon gods, led by the evil dragon Regulos. Two factions, the gods-blessed Guardians and the tech-savvy Defiant, have taken up arms to fight Regulos and the other incursions, as well as each other. The lore behind the world is quite engaging and sets the stage for some great narratives and game mechanics, such as the opposition of the two factions in PvP, story quests and dungeons, and the eponymous rifts. Keep reading for more on each of these.

We've been following Trion Worlds' new game since its beta, which itself was a very polished experience, and the same holds true of the launch version of the game. Character creation is pretty much what you'd expect for an MMO, and you get to choose your faction and race from the Guardians' Mathosians (humans), High Elves, and Dwarves, or the Defiant's Eth (humans), Kelari (dark elves), and Bahmi (sort of giants, and very cool). You then pick your character's class from the Warrior, Cleric, Rogue and Mage archetypes. You get quite a few customization options to make your character look just like your favorite celebrity (tiger blood not included). It's very streamlined but still very customizable.

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After a quick cutscene that sets the scene for your faction's involvement in the story, you're dumped into a common starting area for your side's races. The starter area introduces you to the story and most of the game's different mechanics, with the exception of PvP and dungeons. If you've played an MMO before, it'll be extremely familiar and seem very well-polished, while introducing you to new things like the game's class system and public groups. The starter area is a great way to get familiarized with the game quickly (hit a few golf balls with those clubs and see if you like them, so to speak) and has enough story hooks to get you interested in the main game.

Questing is streamlined in all of the glorious ways it should be, without detracting from the immersiveness of the tasks that you're assigned. You've got a handy quest tracker (which you can turn off, if you like running around in circles looking for x number of goblins to kill) that shows your objectives on a neatly comprehensible minimap, and quest-givers in a given hub generally send you to the same location to kill/gather/spam the chat channel/etc., with minimal back-tracking. You're never in the same area for very long and feel like you're making progress as you move from hub to hub.

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One of the first things you'll notice when you get into the main game is how beautiful the game is (both starter areas are kind of dreary, with the world ending and all, spoilers). Rift shares some similarities with Warhammer Online and Aion in its art style, but is unique enough in its assets that it stands out with personality and flavor. It's a mix between photo-realism and cartoony graphics, and it works. You don't have to have an uber-system to run it, and it'll look pretty on most settings, but with the higher quality options turned on it looks fabulous. Character models are nice, but the vistas and lighting effects can be downright stunning in some areas.

If you're looking (or listening) for it, the sound can be quite detailed and charming as well. The game's music is very well-composed, and ambient sounds really add to the immersiveness of the game. Things like the sounds of your feet crunching differently on leaves and on snow, or the rattle of your mount's harness as you ride cross-country really stand out. Battle sounds are appropriately fighty as well.

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So far, we haven't discussed anything too ground-breaking, other than the extreme polish that Rift has demonstrated since even before launch (no small feat, as the million or so players trying to get online during the pre-launch only faced server queues instead of server crashes). But Rift stands out in two very distinct ways: its diverse, customizable class system and its dynamic rift content.

Rift's class system is built on the concept of souls, which tie in to your story as part of the world's mythology. You're basically a resurrected warrior from an apocalyptic battle with Regulos, and as such are able to attune yourself to the souls of other fallen warriors. Based on your class archetype chosen at character creation (Warrior, Cleric, Rogue, or Mage), you'll have eight souls (and one PvP soul) available that can be unlocked over time. Each of these offers a talent tree of sub-specialization that you can mix and match with two other souls at a time.

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This means that you can customize your character as deeply into any given soul as you'd like, while adding touches here and there from your other two souls to augment your main soul, or create a more rounded-out combination from all three. It's super crunchy, and having played a variety of the souls thus far, we're happy to say that each soul is different enough from the others to provide for some real variety and coolness. Mixing your soul trees will open up different class abilities, too, which adds diversity to the standard but fast-paced and fun hotbar-based combat system.

Another incredibly fun addition that Rift brings to the table is its dynamic rift content. As we understand it, Trion Worlds has build its server architecture from the ground up to support the implementation of dynamic content throughout Telara's different zones, and provide server stability while thousands of people are interacting with it. This means that the game can spawn any number of local and zone-wide events that scale to the makeup of players in that region. These events can be things like random traveling merchants who carry rare items for sale, or rifts themselves, where denizens of the outer planes stage assaults against Telara. Players can then join public groups and fulfill quest-like objectives to defeat the monsters and close the rifts, getting currency for sweet rewards in the process.

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If rifts are like small uprisings on your minimap that appear randomly, zone-wide invasions are the apocalypse. Picture this: you're happily minding your own business battling goblins or buying and selling at a local vendor, and the sky darkens. Big-name leaders of the region's towns and encampments start exhorting you to come help them defend their locations, while named monsters explain the doom they're about to visit upon your zone. Then, all hell breaks loose, and monsters and rifts start spawning everywhere, intent on destroying major wardstones (basically big crystals that provide bonuses in encampments) and NPC's in the zone. Everyone in the area will get quest objectives to seal rifts or defeat a number of creatures, and when that's completed, a huge raid boss will spawn in the world for everyone to wale on.

Rifts and invasions are TOTALLY EPIC. They're also made vastly fun and easy to do by Rift's public grouping system, which allows you to join a group in your area that's fighting a rift or invasion by clicking a button. The group will automatically convert to a raid when it's big enough, and each player will receive rewards relative to their contribution. It's very easy to join and beat up monsters without feeling pressured to do well in your class role or having to compete with others for loot, and stimulates a great sense of community and camaraderie throughout the zone. Even if you're more into soloing through Telara's main content - which is totally doable - it's hard not to get swept up in the fun of no-pressure rifting with other people. There are also some great gear and item rewards that you can get with planarite, the currency you get from fighting rifts and invasions!

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Another form of group content in Rift is in the game's dungeons and raids. If you're into doing instanced dungeons and raiding, you'll probably be quite at home here. There are a number of dungeons and raids available at launch (including open-world rift raids and expert difficulty versions of the dungeons) and Trion Worlds has indicated they have a pretty comprehensive post-launch content schedule. The dungeons themselves seem to be very well-laid out and story driven; the one we've played so far has your party tromping around the realm of the fae, which is kind of a hedge maze that progresses through the seasons of nature as you run through it. Neat!

If you're the crafting type, there are nine professions to chose from: Butchery, Foraging, Mining, Apothecary, Armorsmithing, Artificing, Outfitting, Runecrafting, and Weaponsmithing. The first three are gathering professions, while the rest are production, and you can have a combination of three on one character. The crafting system is pretty analogous to those in other MMO's, but being able to chose three is fun, as many of the production professions require materials from two types of gathering professions.

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For those that are of the mind that less QQ and more pew-pew are required in an MMORPG, Rift's PvP has got you covered. Offering four instanced warfronts (basically battlegrounds) at launch, there's plenty of room for you to stab the other faction in the face. The warfronts are unlocked over time as you level, and you can jump in them any time by using the cross-server queue tool. They also scale by every ten levels or so, and provide moderate level buffs, meaning that if you're playing in a level 10-19 warfront, a level 19 player will have an advantage over a level 12 player, but not hugely so. We've dipped in to one of the warfronts extensively so far, and it's very fast-paced and pretty tactical, and since the warfronts are cross-server, we haven't had to wait more than a couple of minutes or so to get in. In addition, Rift offers a bunch of open world PvP that we haven't seen yet, and the PvP rewards are nothing to shake a Kelari longsword at.

There are literally dozens of other things that Rift gets right that may not be new to MMO's, but are certainly improved and polished iterations of their predecessors. The UI is delightfully clean and has some great ease-of-use functions, like an inventory search. There are achievements and a guild leveling system already in place, and and a set of collections in your character sheet for the artifacts and books you'll find in Telara (totally addicting for you OCD types). There's a good, if basic, auction house and burgeoning player economy. Certainly, we'd love to see improvements that don't already exist in the game, such as a cross-server dungeon finder (go ahead and flame, but they just make life easier for everyone). The true test of time will also be if Rift's developers continue to support the game and deliver content on a regular schedule to keep high-level players happy, and it seems like Trion Worlds is on the ball as usual.

Rift is truly a love letter to fans of the genre who love the standard MMORPG formula but are looking for a new, evolved world to play in. Trion World's game is incredibly polished and adds enough innovation, background and personality to give it a character of its own, and will feel instantly comfortable to anyone that's played an MMO in the past ten years. It's also a very friendly introduction for newcomers to the genre, and provides a bunch of new mechanics and dynamic content to excite even the most decorated MMO veteran. Whether you're a pro or are teeing off for the first time, Rift is definitely worth your money - and ours!

Aion: Send Me an Angel

Have you ever been to a restaurant that had great presentation, friendly service, and exquisite decor, but was missing something in the food department? As in, everything about the place was welcoming and polished, but the meal lacked a certain spice that would make the restaurant one of your new favorite hotspots?

That's what playing Aion can sometimes feel like. NCSoft's MMORPG has an outstanding presentation, beautiful art style and graphics, and enough interesting twists on standard MMO gameplay to make it a fun game, but still lacks the certain punch necessary to recommend the required $15 subscription fee.

Aion's setting is the world of Atreia, which is comprised of two separate worlds inhabited by the Elyos and Asmodians, the game's two playable factions. Think of the original X-Men's Archangel and you've got the Elyos aesthetic pretty well, which is the "light" faction of Aion's daeva. Add in some Constantine, mood lighting and power chords and you've found the Asmodians, the "dark" playable race. Both of these factions are in constant struggle - otherwise known as PVP - with each other, as well as a third, dragon-like race called the Balaur that occupies the Abyss, a no-person's-land in between the other two.

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Sound complex? It kind of is, which is part of what makes Aion so cool. The game is truly a love letter to anyone who loves fantastic representations of angels, dragons, anime-inspired western fantasy, or factions that are defined by conquest rather than perceptions of good or evil. The story and setting are very well thought out, and there's a huge resource in the PowerWiki for those who love to get into lore.

Graphically, the game is likewise incredible, sporting breathtaking environments and detailed, fully customizable character models. Seriously, this game has one of the most comprehensive character creation experiences we've ever seen, where you can change things like facial features, body type, skin tone, and choose from dozens of hairstyles and tattoos. The environments are lush and gorgeous, and the large variety of detailed items and armor sets make for characters that look great and feel different from every other noob that you'll run into in the auction house.

Part of what makes the game's visuals work so well is the clean, efficient interface and the way the graphics integrate smoothly into the UI. Aion has a level of polish that is akin to games like World of Warcraft and The Lord of the Rings Online, where the graphics don't just work well for the setting - they also simply work, meaning that there are minimal issues with clipping, seeing through characters, or popups that are common to a lot of MMO's. Similarly, the interface integrates seamlessly with Aion's art style with a level of detail that adds to the immersiveness of the game. In my mind, if you're staring at a game for hundreds of hours (even you, Morrowind), the UI had better be as banging as the other visuals, otherwise the whole thing's going to look stale after awhile.

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Make no mistake about it, Aion doesn't do anything particularly new for the genre in any of these aspects. The daeva-inspired setting and art style are beautiful, but are reminiscent of other types of Eastern-style online games (take Lineage 2, for example), and the interface is certainly standard fare for an MMO, if prettier than most. The same is true for Aion's gameplay, and most veteran MMORPG players will be instantly comfortable with the quest system and action bar style combat.

One thing does set Aion apart from other games, online or otherwise: flying. Yes, FLYING. As in, after you reach level 10 and fulfill certain quests, your character gets WINGS. TO FLY WITH. Perhaps one of the most awesome additions to the game, you can hit the jump key any time to use your wings to glide from higher to lower ground, or fly around for limited bursts in specific areas of the game. It adds a totally rad spin to the usual gameplay elements in an MMO, and can be quite useful: I was questing with a PuG in an open dungeon-type area up on a hill, and rather than fighting our way through respawns to reach the valley below, we simply took off and glided lazily down to the next area. Totally awesome.

Flying also lends an interesting y-axis dynamic to PVP, for which there are several options to get your pwn on. Within general PvE areas there are periodic "rifts" that allow travel between Elysae and Asmodae to specific locations in each other's worlds. What this generally amounts to is you happily minding your own business slaying monsters in the wild, only to realize that a group of level ??? players from the opposing faction have suddenly teleported directly in your personal space, and that they don't like sharing. Gah!

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Above level 25, there's the Abyss, which is your basic open-world PVP experience with quests, fortresses, and Aion's unique "PvPvE" system, in which the NPC third faction, the Balaur, compete against both of the player factions for supremacy. Although we haven't spent any time in the Abyss yet, and are definitely looking forward to doing so, we have heard that there are some balancing issues where characters of vastly different levels are concerned. We would love it if NCSoft employed some sort of level inflation system a la Warhammer Online or even just level-appropriate instances, but nothing has been announced so far.

If you're into crafting, Aion has plenty for you to do. As with the graphics and gameplay, it's mostly standard stuff: gather or purchase the ingredients and then cook, smith, woodwork, tailor, or alcheme (not a word, but it should be) to your heart's content. And seriously, your heart had better be into it, because it's going to take you a good long while to grind through the several tiers of crafting. At least you've got four hundred other people in each of the six or so crafting rooms to talk to while you're doing it!

Speaking of grinding, the lack of mid-level content is probably our biggest - or only? - real gripe with Aion overall. The 1-10 experience for both factions is spectacular, with a bunch of interesting quests, interactive story sequences, and a good dose of wonder as you earn your wings. After level 15 or so, the content starts to get pretty thin, and you're forced to grind mobs to get to the next quest hub, which can get repetitive really fast. If combat or exploration were really engaging, that wouldn't be much of a problem, but as we've mentioned, the action is pretty standard MMO stuff and although the environments are beautiful, they tend to run together with a lot of pretty colors, lacking some substance.

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To their credit, NCSoft has worked to address many of these issues with several updates and a new expansion, and is very involved in interfacing with the lively Aion community. The community itself is very active and tends to be pretty mature and willing to help. Honestly, we've only had a few in-game conversations that went like:
[celine-daion]: you guys ply wow
[strgamer]: 20 sin LFG, pst
[everbreast23]: hey how do u get quests
[celine-daion]: i ply wow but my guild sux
[ihaveasmo]: wow sux
[everbreast23]: HEY HOW DO U GET QUESTS
[celine-daion]: ihaveasmo u ply wow?
[strgamer]: 20 sin LFG, pst

Other than that, people seem to be pretty friendly.

Aion recently celebrated its first anniversary with the release of Assault on Balaurea, a free expansion to the main game that increases the level cap to 55, introduces the new zones of Gelkmaros and Inggison in Balaurea, adds new flight dynamics and useful pets to the game, and brings a host of new instances and quests to the world of Atreia. NCSoft has bundled the expansion into a new retail version of the MMORPG as well as providing the download as a regular update for subscribers. Although we haven't had a chance to check it out just yet, we're definitely excited to do so as it seems that they've addressed a lot of the grinding issues that we've had trouble with.

With the huge range of MMO's available to contend with, Aion definitely makes a name for itself with its distinctive art style, spectacular graphics, flying mechanics, and general polish. Even the game's launch went relatively smoothly, which is mute testament to how well-supported it is. Still, Aion mostly builds upon a tried and true MMO formula, and requires a lot of grinding, while lacking a certain depth or innovation that would really make us want to keep up a subscription. Like a lot of other MMORPG's, Aion could definitely benefit from the F2P treatment (please oh please SOE, if you're listening, hear our plea for a F2P Vanguard), or even just 3- or 6-month pricing plans, which would seriously make it easier to justify the subscription cost.

We're really looking forward to checking out Assault on Balaurea, as it seems like NCSoft has been paying attention to the community it's working for, and in the MMO world, that goes a long way towards increasing playership. Support of a game is paramount to the success of a good design, and if Aion gets the attention it needs in terms of content and balancing open-world PVP, then that's something we can subscribe to!